Dependence regulation in newlywed couples: A prospective examination

According to the risk regulation model ( S. L. Murray, J. G. Holmes, & N. L. Collins, 2006 ), people need to trust in their partner's regard before they risk interdependence. This study prospectively examines the association between perceived regard and levels of dependence in newlywed couples over 9 years of marriage. Analyses demonstrate that changes in perceived regard predict levels of dependence, changes in dependence do not predict perceived regard, and alternative explanations cannot account for these effects. Further, changes in perceived regard prospectively predict divorce, and levels of dependence mediate this association. Results are discussed in terms of the dependence regulation component of the risk regulation model.     

How Clients Are Harmed by Sexual Contact with Mental Health Professionals: The Syndrome and Its Prevalence

Research concerning the prevalence, varieties, contributing factors, and harmful consequences of sexual intimacies with clients (occurring either prior to or subsequent to termination) is reviewed. The sequelae of therapist-client sex may form a distinct syndrome, with similarities to Rape Response Syndrome, Battered Spouse Syndrome, reaction to incest, response to child abuse, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Aspects of Therapist-Patient Sex Syndrome include: (a) ambivalence, (b) a sense of guilt, (c) feelings of emptiness and isolation, (d) sexual confusion, (e) impaired ability to trust, (f) identity, boundary, and role confusion, (g) emotional lability (frequently involving severe depression and acute anxiety), (k) suppressed rage, (i) increased suicidal risk, and (j) cognitive dysfunction (especially in the areas of attention and concentration, frequently involving flashbacks, nightmares, intrusive thoughts, and unbidden images).     

Phenomenological note on belief-feeling and the relation between affect and belief

It is asserted that there are two kinds of belief-feeling, i.e., feeling (confident) that something is true or real. The difference between α-feeling and β-feeling of belief is analogous to the difference between having a sensory impression and merely imagining the impression. An α-belief is a concomitant correlate of affect and it tends to be stronger than the corresponding β-belief.     

The incongruent color-words paradigm and language lateralization: An EEG-study

The present study utilizes an incongruent color-words paradigm, where color-words are briefly flashed either to the left or to the right of the center of futation. The hypothesis is that a greater conflict between the word and the color the word is written in will occur in the left hemisphere than in the right hemisphere, if the task of the subject is to report only the color. In previous studies, however, only behavioral measures, like vocal reaction time and error frequency, have been used to assess asymmetry. In the presented experiment we have added analysis of the 8–13 Hz EEG alpha difference between the hemispheres, predicting greater alpha reduction to the color-words in the left hemisphere, but not to the control stimuli. Twenty intact, male, dextrals participated. Results supported the prediction, witha 8.3% reduction of alpha activity in the left hemisphere to the color words, compared to a 1.9% reduction in the right hemisphere. No difference was found to the control stimuli.     

Social support in spouses of cancer patients: What do they get and to what end?

Using a retrospective design, the authors assessed several different aspects of social support (perceived, received, satisfaction with received, and support seeking) in 95 spouses of cancer survivors. The goals of the investigation were to (a) describe in detail the differences between husbands and wives on these support dimensions and (b) explore whether the relation between support and adjustment was different for husbands as compared to wives. While husbands and wives were generally similar-in their general perceptions of available support and in the amount of support they reported seeking, consistent with our hypothesis, compared to husbands of breast cancer victims, wives of prostate cancer victims reported receiving more support and being more satisfied with the support they received. Measures of social support predicted husbands’reports of marital satisfaction and adjustment, but not wives’reports. Partial correlation analyses indicated that sex differences in these support-adjustment links were not attributable to differences in age, or in the time between completing treatment and participating in the study. Sex differences observed in the present study are interpreted as highlighting the need for theory development to account for the complex mechanisms underlying links between supportive transactions and marital satisfaction and adjustment.